Indoor coverage is a primary differentiator among wireless service providers, yet an indoor-environment is not conducive to efficient utilization of radio resources because of various factors such as path loss or attenuation, which can lead to channel quality degradation and ensuing excessive signaling that in turn can substantially increase battery drain for mobile devices operating within the indoor environment. In addition, as wireless service become ubiquitous and thus commoditized, market share of legacy telecommunication systems and service associated therewith are increasingly affected by customer attrition. Thus, femtocells have emerged to exploit legacy systems and extant broadband, non-mobile networks to provide indoor coverage.
Femtocell coverage is generally intended to overlap with extant macro cell coverage to ensure service continuity as a subscriber enters in and exits out of the subscriber's home coverage area, private indoor environment, or other premises where the femtocell resides. Thus, femtocell networks can further leverage the wider coverage provided by conventional macro networks. Conventional macro network platforms that provide service to mobile devices (e.g., user equipment (UE)) must contend with the mobility of the UE when providing communication services. Traditionally, messages intended for a particular UE must be broadcast to a wide area, whereby surrounding nodes of the macro network all broadcast duplicate information to ensure the intended recipient, wherever the UE is located at a given time, receives the communication. In terms of resource utilization, such flood broadcasting is very inefficient, yet often a consequence when the recipient UE potentially expects to maintain a high degree of mobility over a wide area.
In contrast to macro networks, femtocell network platforms rely upon various nodes or femtocells (e.g., home nodeBs (HNBs)). HNBs are building-based wireless access points interfaced with a wired broadband network. As previously noted, HNBs are generally deployed to improve indoor wireless coverage and to offload a mobility radio access network (RAN) operated by a wireless network and service provider. Thus, coverage of a HNB device is generally intended to be approximately confined within the bounds of an indoor compound such as a residential or commercial building.
Unfortunately, communication systems today—those that offer to subscribers both macro network services for coverage over a wide area and femtocell network for indoor home or office use—generally treat the femtocell network as a sub-network of the macro network and thus handle communications in a substantially identical manner. Such treatment is unfortunate because a HNB, unlike mobile phones or other UE, typically does not change location, but rather remains at a particular, known location. Moreover, the HNB maintains a presence within the home or other premises that can be leveraged in a variety of ways that have yet to be taken advantage of.